THEY travelled across South Africa by train bringing hope to people in need of medical help.

And now these Glasgow Caledonian University students are ready to use their new skills to treat people at home.

In June, the Evening Times told how a team of 32 GCU ­optometry undergraduates were to volunteer on Phelophepa, a custom-built train travelling through South Africa.

During a two-week placement they helped a team of full-time medical professionals treat around 150 people each day. For some of those, the annual arrival of the train is the only access they have to eye care.

And many had queued up overnight outside Phelophepa to make they received treatment for everything from cataracts to pterygium, a growth in the eye.

Eilidh Sarquhar, 21, was one of those who took the opportunity to use her qualifications to help South Africans.

She said: "It was a really amazing but intense experience. We were given a lot more responsibility than we would have here and a lot more opportunities.

"It's given us extra skills and was a chance to push ourselves and see what we could achieve."

Students from GCU's Vision Sciences department worked from 8am each morning until everyone queueing had ­received treatment.

Around 150 patients waited each day outside the train for eye examinations and eye-care advice.

Some had had no follow-up treatment since the train passed through their village the year before.

Students travelled to South Africa in teams or four to eight between July and August to work on the train, which is named for a combination of "good" and "clean health" in the Sotho and Tswana languages.

In rural South African communities, such as those the train passes through, there is often only a single doctor for every 5000 people.

Since 1994, Phelophepa has used the existing rail networks to make quality medical care available for many of South Africa's most remote communities.